mindmap root((PARA)) paraphrase To restate the meaning （of something written or spoken） in different words.
🌱She started off the class by asking one of the students to paraphrase the Tennyson poem, to make sure everyone understood its basic meaning. 🌳When we paraphrase, we provide a version that can exist beside the original （rather than replace it）. We paraphrase all the time. When you tell a friend what someone else has said, you're almost always paraphrasing, since you're not repeating the exact words. If you go to hear a talk, you might paraphrase the speaker's main points afterward for your friends. And when writing a paper on a short story, you might start off your essay with a paraphrase of the plot. Paraphrasing is especially useful when dealing with poetry, since poetic language is often difficult and poems may have meanings that are hard to pin down. paralegal Of, relating to, or being a trained assistant to a lawyer.
🌱Part of the firm's business involved researching real-estate properties, which the senior lawyers regarded as paralegal work. 🌳Much of the work in a law office can be done by paralegal assistants, also called legal aides or simply paralegals, who work alongside licensed lawyers. Often a paralegal is trained in a narrow field and then entrusted with it. In this respect, paralegals are similar to paraprofessionals in other fields, such as engineering. Paraprofessionals used to be trained in the office itself, but today it's common to study for a paraprofessional certificate or degree at a community college or university. paramedic A specially trained medical technician licensed to provide a wide range of emergency services before or during transportation to a hospital.
🌱Five ambulances had already arrived, and a dozen paramedics were crouched over the victims with bandages and IVs. 🌳In ground warfare, wounded troops must usually be transported from the front lines back to field hospitals, and trained paramedical personnel—that is, nondoctors, usually known as medics or corpsmen—were first widely used in such situations. It took many decades for the wartime model to be applied effectively to ordinary peacetime medicine. With advances in medical technology （such as defibrillators, for restarting a heart after a heart attack）, paramedics became an essential part of emergency medicine, and today hundreds of thousands of people owe their lives to paramedics. Paraprofessionals who work only in hospitals and clinics usually go by other titles. paramilitary Relating to a force formed on a military pattern, especially as a possible backup military force.
🌱In the country's most remote regions, the real power was held by large landowners, who actually kept paramilitary forces, their own private armies, on their estates. 🌳This term paramilitary can take in a wide range of organizations, but is usually applied to forces formed by a government. Groups opposing a government, even when organized along military lines, are more often referred to as guerrillas or insurgents. In countries with weak central governments （such as, in recent times, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, or Congo）, warlords may form their own paramilitary forces and take over all local police and military functions. Paramilitary often has a sinister sound today, since it's also applied to groups of off-duty military or police personnel who carry out illegal violence, often at night, with the quiet support of a government.